I just read a poem by Jacques Prevert, my interest having been rekindled by a ridiculously cheap selection of 9 French poets which I bought at the old Book City in Shenzhen last Sunday. In fact I read quite a few and this is only one of them. I like it very much. It is simple, direct, unpretenious. Since I did not find any English translation, I’ll translate it now. Here it is:

Les enfants qui s’aiment Jacques Prévert Children Lovers

Les enfants qui s’aiment s’embrassent debout The children lovers embrace upright Contre les portes de la nuit Against night’s doorsEt les passants qui passent les désignent du doigt And passers-by who pass by point their finger at ’em Mais les enfants qui s’aiment But the children lovers Ne sont là pour personne Are there for no one Et c’est seulement leur ombre And it’s only their shadow Qui tremble dans la nuit Which quivers in the night Excitant la rage des passants Stirring up the anger of the passers-by

Leur rage, leur mépris, leur rires et leur envie Their anger, their contempt, their laughs and their desireLes enfants qui s’ aiment ne sont là pour personne The children lovers are there for no one Ils sont ailleurs bien plus loin que la nuit They’re elsewhere much further than the night

Bien plus haut que le jour Much higher than the day

Dans l’éblouissante clarté de leur premier jour. In the dazzling light of their first day.

I like the line up of the range of emotions of the passers-by, the force of the last emotion highlighted and contrasted with those preceding it on the one hand and the utter indifference of the puppy lovers to them on the other. The contrast of the old and the young, the night and the day, and the suggestiveness of the "doors of the night" are obviously well thought out. The word "debout" (upright/standing up) seems also to suggest the moral superiority of the innocence of the children over the fluctuating and hypocritical emotions of the adults.

Jacques Prevert (1900-1977) lived most of his life in Paris and wrote about what he saw and felt there. He has written many songs and poems which have since been set to music. He only completed primary education. Another example of how people can still bloom outside of the grist-mill of formal education and perhaps because of staying outside of it.

I shall translate one more each day, for as long as my interest lasts and for as long as I can squeeze in the time.

7 Responses to A Poem by Jacques Prevert

I wish I had more time. English translation takes about maybe 1/5 of the time for doing so in Chinese. It takes more time to physically write out Chinese words. Besides my Chinese is perhaps 10 times worse than my English!